As we begin to drop in,
We'll take with us this idea of presence,
Of becoming present.
Let's be curious about what that is,
Where that is,
What that experience is.
The curiosity is not necessarily about discerning or trying to think about it.
When I use the term curiosity,
I'm generally speaking about being open,
Open to what's there.
The vast majority of our experience is not in the present moment.
By vast majority,
I mean almost entirely.
But most of the time,
If you look at yourself and you look at your mind,
You're either thinking about something that just happened or something that's just about to happen or some distance back and forth into the past and the future.
And that's a natural way to be because our mind,
The thought processes are coming in to demand that of us.
There's all sorts of problems that appear in our thoughts,
All sorts of reasons why this moment is not fully acceptable or it could be different.
We want it to be different.
And so we're constantly thinking about how to make it different,
Get to that soothing space.
Not now,
But some point.
That's what our mind tells us.
Remember if only I had done X,
Y or Z in the past,
Things would be better now.
I didn't do that.
So I better do something for the future so that the future will be better.
The present moment is always here,
Always now,
And yet we miss it because we're always paying attention to our thinking.
So as we begin to meditate,
We bring our attention to something in the present moment,
To something that's happening now as opposed to the thoughts that are trying to describe a better future.
And so it's generally useful and powerful to utilize the breath.
Breath is always with you.
It's always here.
When you're not paying attention to it,
It's just breathing,
Breathing you.
But it's one of our organ functions that we can take over,
Take control.
And then allow ourselves to connect to something that's happening right now,
This breathing.
And the benefit of this focus,
Not just to bring us into presence or bring us closer to presence,
Is to allow us to modulate that breathing down into the belly to signal to our nervous system that we're safe and we can relax.
This is the most important thing to take with you in your managing of your nervous system and the managing of stress is breathing down into the abdomen.
The moment we get that belly to come out as we breathe in,
The breath comes down,
Not just into the chest,
But first into the belly,
Then rising into the chest.
Then our whole organ function,
The nervous system,
The limbic system can say we're safe and everything can be dialed down.
As things become dialed down,
Our awareness changes.
The world seems less dangerous.
Our day seems less chaotic.
Things that we might have just moments ago have been extremely concerned about for these moments start to recede,
Be a little less important.
As we step further into relaxation,
Our attraction to our own thinking becomes a little bit less.
And so this is the practice part of the training of how to interact with yourself when you would like to calm things down.
Feel back from all the fear,
All the chaos,
The overwhelm,
And drop into this moment.
So just allow yourself to breathe nice and gently into the belly,
Filling that belly up,
Filling that chest up,
And then just letting that breath out,
Starting to equalize that in-breath and out-breath.
And every time you breathe out,
Just allow a little bit of tension to be released from your body.
This tension that we build up in resistance to what's happening.
As we keep that tension,
As the tension remains in our body,
These are signals to us to stay alert.
And to get closer to the present moment,
We want to have a different type of awareness,
Being alert in a different type of way,
Not looking for the dangers.
There's no need.
We can have our eyes closed.
We know that we're safe in this moment for these few minutes.
And we allow ourselves to let go,
To let go of any buildup,
Any bracing that we're doing for the impact of some uncomfortable future event,
Not getting our work done.
And just for this moment,
Allowing everything to drop,
All thoughts to just pass by.
It's helpful sometimes to label the thoughts as thinking or as thought.
Gives it a little bit more distance from our attention.
Just bring the focus more deeply into the breath.
As we let go,
As we soften,
As we breathe,
The curiosity is looking for a moment.
What is the present moment?
And without trying to answer that question,
Just posing the question with an open mind,
An open heart,
And just feeling into being.
Here's the physicality of being.
There's all sorts of inputs coming in.
Lots and lots of data from all different sources.
In the moment,
We just open to all of it without trying to discern anything,
Without trying to understand anything.
Just simply being with all of these sensations,
All of these mental images,
All of these thoughts.
Just allowing them all to be just as they are.
But from a place where we don't need to engage,
We can just receive.
This is the place of awareness.
This is the place of the watcher within us.
The part that's just receiving the information.
Allowing each breath in to provide us with sustenance.
All the sustenance we need right now,
Just coming with the in-breath.
The out-breath can be used as a vehicle for letting things go,
For releasing everything from thoughts,
Ideas,
Old emotional baggage,
Grievances.
The out-breath is a vehicle for letting go.
Releasing all that would become toxic in our system,
Quite literally,
If we didn't breathe out.
So we can let go,
Not just the breath,
But all that is causing us to tighten up,
To tense.
And that can be challenging.
So we can at least keep it in the boundaries of this meditation.
We're letting go of things for now.
Helping ourselves with this space to drop deeper into this present moment.
This present moment doesn't require anything.
Doesn't ask anything.
It just is being.
We're just being here.
So when you get caught up in the storyline,
When you start to have a relationship to what's happening,
You start to try to figure things out,
Judge things,
And just come back to the breath.
Breathing in and then on the out-breath,
Just releasing and letting go.
Feeling back into the sensations.
As we go deeper into the sensations of being,
Can look for,
You know,
Ever deepening feelings,
Vibrations,
Looking for that ground of being.
What is it?
The opening without needing to know.
Realizing the body,
Noticing where there's still tension and simply breathing in softening wherever that tension is,
And then breathing out and letting go.
Noticing that all of these feelings,
All these sensations that if they're not pleasant,
There's an immediate desire for it to be different,
To try to make it feel better.
So noticing this aspect of how we constantly drawn away from discomfort towards something more comfortable.
Here and now,
If there's discomfort,
Just noticing it,
Allowing it.
Again,
Opening that curiosity.
And then of course,
With the breath,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Perhaps releasing,
Perhaps soothing.
Noticing the spaciousness.
Also noticing what's trying to take you away from it.
Just bringing the focus back in,
Into the sensations,
Into this basic vibration of being.
Still breathing into the belly,
Quieting things down.
Just taking a breath,
Feeling for tension,
Softening,
Releasing.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Finding your way deeper into the quiet.
Letting yourself rest.
Letting the mind rest.
Letting the body rest.
Letting the mind rest.
Bringing the tension back to the breath.
Bringing full deep breaths into the belly,
Into the chest,
Getting to the point where there's no more space for the air.
Breathing out.
Breathing all the way out.
Letting all of that air out.
Pulling in the abdomen,
Bringing up the value frame,
Squeezing out any excess air on the out breath.
Doing a few rounds of this.
Trying to get air into every nook and cranny of your torso.
As you breathe in and try to squeeze it all out in the out breath.
After the next out breath,
Just letting go.
Letting the breath,
Gently breathe on its own into the belly.
Dropping again into the quiet.
Every time we go deeper into a quiet place,
There's a certain resonance that we begin to cultivate.
How we can access this quiet place more.
Even in the day,
Even as we go about our work and our lives.
It's part of us that knows this quiet place.
We can begin to access it more.
And then as you're ready,
You can begin to bring yourself out by feeling your fingers,
Your feet,
Your toes.
Starting to open your eyes with the call of the input that comes with that.
Just keep this resonance with you.
As you go through your day or into your night.
